BBA figures show house purchase and re-mortgage lending down

Year on year house purchase loans are down 64% and re-mortgaging loans are down 28%, while equity release and other purpose loans were down 35%.

Non seasonally adjusted figures show that the average loan for house purchase is £130,000 down 15% on last year and for re-mortgage £140,000, up 5% on last year.

Gross mortgage lending in August was a seasonally adjusted £13.7bn down from £14.4bn in July, which is some 27% lower than this time last year.

BBA statistics director, David Dooks said of the latest data: "The low number of mortgage approvals in previous months predicted lower gross lending in August and, together with remortgaging, a much weaker net lending figure than of late resulted. Falling property prices, economic pressures on households, tighter lending criteria and anticipation of the Governemnt's announcement on stamp duty all suppressed or delayed demand in August and will continue having an impact in the months ahead"

"Monthly fluctuations in consumer credit and deposits reflect the behaviour of families repaying as much as they spend on credit cards and using their current accounts for expenditure."